


Ancient, Restricted & Priceless

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-27
Updated: 2006-04-30
Packaged: 2019-01-19 15:58:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12413325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Harry meets a girl to learn the ancient magic, but the girl brings more than just teaching. What does exactly "wandless" mean to you?





	1. The Lost House of Gryffindors

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

Harry stood at the ruins of his parents’ house not believeng his own eyes. He looked at three young men and three young ladies behind him and suddenly he realized how complicated it was — good and bad mixed to defeat the enemy they all wanted to defeat, one, his best friend Ron, two, his helper Hermione, three, his soulmate and love Ginny, four, troublemaker, but still the one who had to be there right at that moment, Neville, five, his mentor of previous months, Gretta and six, his opposite, Draco. One sword, one phoenix, six wands, one priceless ability of using wandless magic and seven pairs of eyes looking into the darkness.

Harry’s mind was racing, he felt the cold wind blow and suddenly a flash of green light appeared in the dark sky. He saw a face he wanted to see for so long, but still never wanted to see it again after that, and heard a voice, cold enough to make a wonderful summer night at Godric’s Hollow turn into almost winter-like eternity at hell.

“So, are you going to die first or let your pretty friends die before you, Harry Potter?”

* * *

Harry knocked on the large wooden door waiting for an answer, but none followed. He stood at a small wooden house that looked almost like Hagrid’s unless it was neat and a bit larger.

He raised his hand to knock again, but suddenly the door opened and he was met by a pair of big brown eyes curiously staring at him.

“Yes? May I help you, Harry?” the owner of those eyes who happened to be a girl, asked.

Harry frowned, “How do you?..”, but suddenly understood. “Oh, nevermind. Hello! I guess you know who I am, but I still don’t know what your name is, although Dumbledore..”, he stopped for a second. “I mean his portrait told me a lot about your abilities...”

The girl looked suspicious. “It’s Gretta. And what did Professor tell you?”

Harry hesitated then asked, “Maybe you could let me in?” Gretta nodded. “Of course. Come in”, she let Harry in and he saw a large bookshelf with lots and lots.. and, well, lots of books. Some titles read “Ministry of Magic: Restricted Spells”, “Improve your N.E.W.T.s in Three Days” and “Hogwarts: Advanced Transfiguration for Home Studying”. But one title got him interested more than the others: “Wandless Magic: The Power Inside You”.

Gretta noticed he was staring at the book. “Interested? You’re here for that, right?”

Harry nodded and looked around, really amazed by the room’s decorating: large Gryffindor flag along with the family tree like the one he saw in Black’s house at Grimmauld Place only larger a few times and something that looked like a larger copy of Maradeur’s Map on the wall, statues of lions and phoenixes of all sizes and a moving potrait of an old wizard that said “Godric Gryffindor”. Harry stood still for a few seconds, then turned to the girl and asked “Who are you? How come you’ve got all that and you’ve never been to Hogwarts?”

Gretta sighed. “Sit down, Harry Potter, my story is long enough to get you tired if you stand there any longer.. and maybe it would have been even more famous than yours if I wasn’t who I am.. So listen..”

Harry sat down on the couch that stood against the wall with the Gryffindor family tree and Gretta started.

“My full name is Gretta Ann Gryffindor. Don’t let my name confuse you, Harry, I am the Gryffindor heiress and fortunately not the last one, as you know, other Hogwarts founders have no pure-blood heirs ever since Tom Marvolo Riddle was born. Yes, the great Rowena and Helga were rather nice and that led even the Smiths to half-breeding. No-no, don’t look at me like that, I’m not against half-bloods or muggle-borns, I know you are great, I’m just talking about facts.

I’ve been living in this small house all my life, as long as I can remember and it’s always been cosy and nice. My parents often come to visit me, but they never stay long enough, just because they’re not allowed.

I know why you are here. What do you know about wandless magic, Harry?”

Harry didn’t know what to say. Listening to Dumbledore’s portrait it seemed so easy that he thought he could do anything to learn the ancient art of wandless magic, real magic, not removing the glass in the zoo or blowing up your annoyin aunt. That was not what he needed. He needed to do everything he could do with his wand and even more. “I know it’s hard to learn”, that was all he could say, but then curiousity took over. “But why?”

Gretta smiled. “You see, Harry, it’s one of the most interesting things about it. When you cast a spell with your wand, you use the power of the wand’s core, it’s pure magic, only magic creatures can be, well, sources of real wands. But when you have no wand, you’re useless. When your wand is broken, you’re useless. When you have a problem with your wand, you’re useless. And the problem with your wand Harry is that it has a twin and not a good one. Do you understand why Dumbledore sent you to me now?”

“Because Voldemort can control or even use my wand?”

“Yes. And that’s why you’re here — to learn how to do magic without anything. Now, let me tell you my story and why I live here.

I was born to the wizard family, my father is a Gryffindor heir and my mother is a pure-blood witch. I grew up as a usual kid, I have to say as a usual wizard kid, I know that what I call ‘usual’ doesn’t seem usual to muggles at all. But it still was usual to me, until I did something I regret about now. 

I read a lot and found an interesting book in our library.. You can see it here, it’s the one that got you interested. I started reading it, it was fun, but I never managed to do anything right.

Just like some Hogwarts students I liked practicing my magic even before I went to school and it seemed to be fun, I got a wonderful wand from my parents and tried some spells. Unfortunately, my wandless abilities started getting out of hand, I’d say, they came right out of my hand, not my wand, as I thought. I found it out when I was just practicing a few moves without my wand, but ended up turning my table into a wooden horse. The next moment people from Ministry of Magic were there, sat me down and told me that from this time I’m not allowed to use magic in public or to affect something or else I will be punished. I was isolated. That was nine years ago. Now I’m almost eighteen and all I can do is entertain myself turning pencils into worms here, at this place. I wasn’t allowed to go to Hogwarts not to affect someone by accident, but Dumbledore was so kind to me that he let me study at home...

Only two years later I heard from my father that it’s been years since anybody ever learnt to perform wandless magic. That was so difficult and time-consuming that some wizards said they would never waste their time and power on such thing and only those who had natural abilities could go this far as I did.

So I was left here with these books and my wandless power. I have no wand, I’m not allowed to go to School, but still I can learn some things, no one told me not to do magic in this house...” 


	2. Finding the Power Inside

The next morining Harry woke up early to the smell of smoke sitting up in his bed, putting his glasses on quickly, stood up, picked up his wand and ran into the common room where Gretta was standing in a middle of something liquid... well, just something, he couldn’t tell what it was for sure... something on the floor surrounded by smoke that smelled awful.

Gretta was wearing the Gryffindor robes and looked desperate. “I totally forgot how to do this, I haven’t been practising for ages.” She let out a small sigh and sat down on the floor right where the now color-changing liquid was, soaking her clothes.

Harry raised the wand and said “Evanesco”. The green-to-yellow-to-red thing dissapeared, the robes became dry and suddenly Gretta started crying. “I thought... I could...”, she sobbed.

Harry looked confused. “And I thought that wasn’t a problem for you.”

Gretta raised up her puffy and red eyes to see Harry standing in a wife-beater and underwear. 

“Why?” She continued sobbing.

“Dumbledore said you could kill with the Avada Kedavra curse and the person you cursed wouldn’t even notice.”

Gretta suddenly giggled through all the sobbing. “He could say so.. but I’m afraid I can’t even make a simple potion or just a glass of water now. You see..” she raised up from the floor with the help of Harry and smoothed down her clothing. “You see, Harry... I’m not that powerful as you may think.” She went to the couch and sat down, Harry still standing in the clothes he was sleeping in with the wand in his hand, still confused about her words. “I can only teach you, I’m not able to curse anyone, I can do simple magic. You will have to use it wisely, it is too complicated, but it’s the power inside you and all you can learn from me is only a base.” She jerked her head up and looked at Harry. “You want some tea?” She noticed how he was dressed and realised how stupid they might have looked, they both laughed at the moment, Gretta stood up and let Harry get dressed.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the common room drinking tea and chatting.  
“...so I just pulled his robes over his head and kicked him”, Harry said making Gretta laugh and almost spill her tea out of her nose. She put her cup down and looked at Harry curiously.

“Who is this Malfoy anyway?”

Harry stared at her for the first time. She had long brown hair pulled into a simple ponytail, big brown eyes and a very simple face.

“Well, just a snobby snob”, was all he said leaving Gretta very confused and yet curious. “Can we start now?” he asked with his eyes sparkling. It was obvious he wanted to learn how to do the ancient magic without the use of his wand.

The girl smiled. “Well, let’s start.” She stood up and took a book from the shelf, then returned to the couch and sat down next to Harry opening the book on the very first page.

“You see”, she started. “The ancient magic used to be wandless, that’s why it is so priceless. The wizards of the past centuries tried to learn how to cast spells, make potions without their wands, but they didn’t have much success. The answer to the question ‘why?’ is really simple. This art requires something more than just pure will. You need to be special, you need to be loved or..” she reached out to Harry’s forehead and lightly brushed the scar. “You need to be saved by love.” She snapped her fingers, the book closed and Harry saw that the cover was almost alive: it had moving patterns and the letters were reconstructing themselves into different words. “That is the first one I learned, pretty simple, but fun to do, works only for this book. Thought not all of them made by just snapping your fingers. You know one or two wandless charms, I believe.”

Harry nodded, held out his hand as if reaching for his broom that he had left in the corner and said [i]Accio[/i]. The broom moved, then flew up and right into Harry’s hand.

Gretta’s eyes widened. “You didn’t use ‘broom’ to call it? That is really nice, some people can’t call things within their reach, I’m not even talking about things that are far from them.” Harry put the broom down and Gretta continued. “I’m sure you’ll learn fast. Now what you need is to concentrate, because if you don’t concentrate, you will most likely do something wrong or even hurt yourself. That’s not right. So concentrate and you will find the power inside. Try to make those patterns on the cover move, it’s easy, just imagine it all in your mind, then snap your fingers, there’s no spell for it.”

Harry closed his eyes and imagine the cover of the Wandless Magic book, patterns on it and the way they moved making new drawings, snapped his fingers and opened his eyes to look at the cover... the patterns turned into the dog.

*   *   *

“If I were you, I would learn all this by heart”, Hermione said flipping through the pages of the book she took to prepare for the N.E.W.T.s. She, Harry and Ron were sitting in the library studying or at least Hermione was studying – Harry sat there with a blank face, deep in thought and Ron was just looking at the front page of some book Hermione gave him. He had already read the title “Advanced Herbology by Castor Zelner” for a thousand times, but still couldn’t get any further, probably because he was in deep thought also.

“This I know, this too...”, Hermione mumbled flipping through another book. She closed it and sighed, desperately looking at her friends. “If there’s something left in this library that I don’t know, I should find it. I’ll go search for some new material. Are you coming with me, Ronald?” she asked making Ron shiver at the sound of her voice and look at her.

“Sure, ‘Mione”, he answered standing up and taking some books with him. Hermione and Ron left Harry alone.

He was thinking. Thinking about Gretta, the things she could have learnt him, he wondered why the patterns turned into a dog… he thought about Sirius… he thought about his father… he thought about where he could have lost the Maradeur’s Map…

*   *   *

The next day the three Gryffindors were sitting at the Great Hall to have breakfast.

“Did you hear it? They say somebody saw Malfoy”, Ron said digging into waffles with jam.

“What?!” Hermione shrieked making Harry jump. “I’m sorry, what?” She repeated in a lower voice.

“Yes”, Ron nodded. “And not the son.”

They all looked at each other and Hermione added. “This is no good, they must be preparing for something really bad”, she looked around, leaned in closer to the boys and whispered. “They may go to the school and do something bad.”

They all thought for a moment then Ron said. “But we can also see if they are in the castle, right, Harry?” Two pairs of eyes stared at Harry with hope, but he didn’t look as if he was sure about affirmative answer to Ron’s question.

“I…”, he swallowed hard. “I lost the Map…” 


End file.
